Dear dimwit on the phone

First job out of college expected me to be in the office 9 to 5, then go out at night and do my coverage. Basically, trying to satisfy that one customer a week that comes into the office at 9 a.m. expecting to talk face-to-face with the sports guy. Silly.

 

More like inhumane.

 

Same with me. First weekly paper where I was a do-it-all reporter I was wanted me in from 8:30 until 5, unless I had to cover a game or a board meeting, or whatever nightly community event was happening. Then they said I could leave an hour earlier. How generous. Nevermind that the board meeting would go three hours, or the game would go two while I'd get people bitching at me for not showing up to the JV game.

One morning, I was 15 minutes late getting in because the board meeting the night before ran until 11 or so.

Boss calls me up, "Why are you late?"
Me: "I had a late board meeting."
Boss: "You're still expected in on time."
Me: "So we're keeping track of time now? Because you're not paying me overtime and you said I can take comp time, and I'm owed a lot of it. Maybe the story can wait and I'll take some comp time today ..."
Boss: "Grumble, grumble ... So what happened at the meeting?"

From my understanding talking to former co-workers, a few years later, an employee made a big complaint with the Dept. of Labor about the paper, and they had to institute a time clock for their staff. Good for them.

 

There was a time when we were expected to put in BS office hours at my place too but all it took was an evaluation of our schedule and what we were asked to do to know that that wasn't going to fly.

I have no problem sitting on Facebook and Sporcle for hours on end because management thinks it's a necessary part of the job but that just means that every 90 minutes I'm stuck doing that is one less game that's getting covered.

 

My former paper was like that -- wanted us in at 6:30 or so in the morning to get the paper out, stay until 4 or 5 that afternoon, and then go cover whatever it was we had to cover (if anything) later that night. It was ridiculous, and I'm glad that -- because I was still in school -- I didn't have to do that every day of the week.

 

You sure that wasn't a radio station? Because hours like that were why I got out of radio.

 

Dear sir:
No, the Local College hockey team did not win its game in a shootout last night. There is no shootout rule. Yes, the teams did an exhibition shootout, but it didn't count for anything. The game is ruled a tie.

If you had read as far as the 3rd paragraph in the story in today's paper, you would understand that.

p.s. Next time leave your phone number so I can correct your idiocy.

 

Were there more than 140 characters in the first two paragraphs? If so, there's your answer.

 

Presumptuous.

 

My shop wants me in during the day and to cover games at night, but I do get overtime.

 

You're quite lucky.

 

It was a PM paper with a deadline of something like 9:30 or 10 in the morning.